Shaker device for a fruit harvesting unit

ABSTRACT

A shaker device including at least one motorized member that is intended to transmit by contact a shaking force to objects to be shaken. The member includes at least one structural insert that is covered by a wear jacket. The structural insert includes a reinforcement included in a matrix that is covered by the jacket. The matrix is based on a material which is different from that of the jacket in that it is adapted to adhere to the reinforcement and to the material of the jacket.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention concerns a shaker device, a fruit harvesting unitincluding a shaker system comprising two such shaker devices, and afruit harvesting machine comprising a support structure on which aremounted a harvesting unit of this kind and a system for recovering thedetached harvest.

The invention applies in particular to the mechanised harvesting offruit growing on trees or bushes planted in rows, such as grapes,berries, coffee beans, olives and other fruits, in particular fruitsgrowing in bunches.

BACKGROUND ART

In the conventional way, the fruits are harvested by straddling at leastone row of plants with a harvesting unit mounted on the supportstructure of a harvesting machine that is moved along said row. To thisend, the harvesting unit comprises a straddling chassis delimiting aharvesting tunnel into which the plants are introduced successively tomove in said tunnel between a front opening and a rear opening of saidtunnel.

To detach the harvest from the plants, the harvesting unit includes ashaker system comprising two shaker devices, said shaker devices beingdisposed on respective sides of the harvesting tunnel to delimit saidtunnel transversely.

Moreover, the harvesting machine comprises a recovery system that makesit possible to convey the flow of harvest obtained in order to be able,possibly after cleaning and/or sorting it, to store it in at least onehopper provided for this purpose or in an attached trailer.

Each shaker device comprises at least one motorised member andadvantageously a plurality of shaker members that are spaced verticallyfrom one another, said members being intended to transmit by contact ashaking force to a plant introduced into the harvesting tunnel.

In the known manner, the shaker members have active parts that extendsubstantially horizontally in the longitudinal direction of theharvesting unit and are adapted to effect a sinusoidal to and fromovement in a horizontal and transverse direction perpendicular to thelongitudinal direction of said unit in order for their active part tocome periodically into contact with the plant.

In particular, as described in the document FR-2 605 487, each shakermember may comprise a rod that may have a small section compared to itslength and be manufactured from a flexible material, for example onebased on a polyester resin charged with glass fibres or based on apolyamide.

However, the use of such rods gives rise to a certain number ofproblems. In particular, when the shaker system is operating, inaddition to the horizontal movements used to shake the plant, these rodseffect parasitic movements, in particular in the vertical direction.

Now, these parasitic movements can cause detachment of leaves and/orbranches from the plant which, in addition to causing damage harmful tothe health of said plant, introduces into the flow of harvest waste thatcomplicates subsequent cleaning of such harvest. Moreover, theseparasitic movements increase the risk of collision between twoconsecutive members of a shaker device, which further reduces theefficacy of said members and increases the risk of breaking them.

Moreover, because of the repetitive impacts against the plants and/orpossible individual impacts against the wood or concrete stakes thatsupport said plants, the rods may become worn, notably at the level oftheir active part, which eventually leads to a reduction in theirsection and therefore to an increase in their flexibility.

Now, an increase in the flexibility of a rod reduces its efficacy inthat, with a rod that is too flexible, it is more difficult to cause aplant to oscillate. Moreover, the more flexible a rod, the greater therisk of parasitic movements occurring. Because of this, it is necessaryto replace the shaker rods after a certain time of use, which leads todisadvantages in terms of cost if said time of use is too short.

To alleviate these disadvantages there are known from the document FR-2789 262 shaker members that feature a structure with at least one insertadapted to have the oscillatory characteristics required for saidmember, said insert being moreover covered by a jacket formed of a wearmaterial different from the material from which said insert is made.

In particular, the wear jacket is made from a material and/or withdimensions, in particular in terms of thickness, that are chosen to makeit possible for the oscillatory characteristics of the insert plusjacket combination, in other words the complete shaker member, to bevirtually those of the insert alone. Wear of the jacket therefore has aminimum or even substantially no influence on the oscillatorycharacteristics and therefore on the efficacy of the shaker member,which makes it possible to increase its service life, which isadvantageous.

However, this solution is not entirely satisfactory, in that thedistribution of the insert in the jacket and/or the choice of thematerial for said insert do not make it possible to limit effectivelythe parasitic oscillations of the rods during use under difficult speedand/or climate conditions. In particular, these rods tends to resonatewhen the oscillation frequency is high, for example greater than 480cycles per minute, and/or when the ambient temperature and/or relativehumidity are high, which proves particularly disadvantageous forharvesting grapes.

The invention aims to improve on the prior art by proposing a shakerdevice the members of which are, thanks to a judicious choice of thematerial constituting the structural inserts, adapted to have increasedefficacy, in particular at high oscillation frequencies, and over a widerange of wear.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

To this end, according to a first aspect, the invention proposes ashaker device comprising at least one motorised member that is intendedto transmit by contact a shaking force to objects to be shaken, saidmember including at least one structural insert that is covered by adistinct wear jacket, said structural insert including a reinforcementincluded in a matrix that is covered by the jacket, said matrix beingbased on a plastic material which is of the same chemical nature as thematerial of the jacket, the material of the matrix adhering to thereinforcement and to the material of the jacket.

According to a second aspect, the invention proposes a fruit harvestingunit intended to be mounted on a harvesting machine, said unitcomprising a straddling chassis delimiting a harvesting tunnel intowhich the plants to be shaken are intended to be introduced successivelyto move in said tunnel between a front opening and a rear opening ofsaid tunnel, said harvesting unit featuring a shaker system comprisingtwo such shaker devices that are disposed on respective sides of theharvesting tunnel to delimit said tunnel transversely.

According to a third aspect, the invention proposes a fruit harvestingmachine comprising a support structure on which are mounted a harvestingunit of the above kind and a system for recovering the detached harvest.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent inthe following description, given with reference to the appended figures,in which:

FIG. 1 represents diagrammatically and in side view a harvesting machineaccording to the invention, said side view being partly in section toshow the harvesting unit;

FIG. 2 represents diagrammatically the operating principle of the shakersystem, of which two shaker members of respective shaker devices arerepresented as seen from above;

FIG. 3 represents diagrammatically in cross-section a shaker memberaccording to one embodiment of the invention;

FIGS. 4 and 5 represent diagrammatically in cross-section a shakermember according to two respective other embodiments of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a view to a larger scale of a structural insert from FIGS. 4and 5.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS OF THE INVENTION

In the context of the present description, terms for positions in spacerelative to the harvesting machine are defined relative to the directionof movement of said machine. In particular, in relation to FIG. 2, theterms “front” and the “rear” are represented respectively on the leftand on the right in this Figure, “left” and the “right” are respectivelyrepresented at the bottom and at the top of this Figure, “transverse”means between the “left” and the “right, and “longitudinal” meansbetween the “front” and the “rear”.

The invention concerns a fruit harvesting machine 1 intended inparticular for the mechanised harvesting of fruit growing on trees orbushes planted in rows, such as grapes, berries, coffee beans, olives orother fruits, in particular fruits growing in bunches. The harvestingmachine 1 is more particularly intended for harvesting grapes and/orolives.

The harvesting machine 1 comprises a support structure 2, in particulara motorised structure, on which a harvesting unit 3 can be mountedeither permanently or removably so that it can be replaced by otherequipment and accessories, for example spraying equipment, plant pruningequipment or equipment for working the soil.

The harvesting machine 1 also comprises a system for recovering theharvest detached by the harvesting unit 3, said system being mounted onthe support structure 2 of said harvesting machine. In one embodiment,the recovery system comprises two bucket conveyors adapted to recoverthe detached harvest under the harvesting unit 3 and to convey saidharvest into the upper part of the harvesting machine 1 for storage inat least one hopper 4 provided for this purpose or in an attachedtrailer.

Further, the harvesting machine 1 may comprise a system for cleaningand/or sorting the flow of harvest from the bucket conveyor so as toeliminate components other than fruit, in particular leaves, stalks andwood chips.

The harvesting unit 3 comprises a straddling chassis 5 that can bemounted on the support structure 2 in a fixed manner or so that it canpivot about a horizontal and longitudinal axis, said straddling chassisdelimiting a harvesting tunnel 6 into which the plants to be shaken areintroduced successively to move in said tunnel between a front opening 6a and a rear opening 6 b of said tunnel.

In FIG. 1, the straddling chassis 5 comprises a welded assembly thatnotably features an upper structure 7, left and right front pillars 8and left and right rear pillars 9.

The harvesting unit 3 features a shaker system comprising two shakerdevices disposed on respective sides of the harvesting tunnel 6 todelimit transversely a central part of said tunnel. In particular, theshaker system may be configured according to the document FR-2-605 487.

The left and right shaker devices include a left vertical shaft 10 a anda right vertical shaft 10 b, respectively, which is rotatably mounted,for example by means of two bearings, to the front of the upperstructure 7 and to the lower end of the respective left and right frontpillars 8.

Moreover, the shaker system comprises a mechanism for driving the leftand right shaker devices. The driving mechanism comprises a left radialarm 11 a and a right radial arm 11 b fixed to the upper end of the leftvertical shaft 10 a and the right vertical shaft 10 b, respectively.Alternatively, the radial arms 11 a, 11 b may be fixed to the lower endsof the vertical shafts 10 a, 10 b, respectively.

The radial arms 11 a, 11 b are articulated by a left vertical shaft 12 aand a right vertical shaft 12 b, respectively, to one of the ends of aleft link 13 a and a right link 13 b, the other end of which isarticulated to a crank pin of a left eccentric 14 a and a righteccentric 14 b, respectively, each of said eccentrics being fixed to arespective end of a transverse rod 15 rotatably mounted by means of twobearings carried by the upper structure 7 of the straddling chassis 5.The length of the links 13 a, 13 b is advantageously adjustable.

The drive mechanism further comprises a pulley or a chain wheel 16 thatis fixed to the transverse rod 15 and connected by a transmission beltor an endless chain 17 to a second pulley or to a chain wheel 18 that isdriven in rotation by a motor 19, for example a hydraulic motor.Accordingly, when the motor turns, the drive mechanism activates eachshaker device of the shaker system by causing each vertical shaft 10 a,10 b to oscillate about its axis.

Moreover, each shaker device of the main shaker system comprises aplurality of shaker members 20 that extend longitudinally and are spacedvertically from one another, the members 20 of each of said devicesbeing spaced transversely to delimit between them the harvesting tunnel6.

Referring to FIG. 2, the members 20 are curved and held between twofront vertical shafts 10 a, 10 b and two rear vertical shafts 21 a, 21 bthat are mounted to rotate relative to a respective rear pillar 9 of thestraddling chassis 5. Moreover, the front end of each shaker member 20is mounted on, for example screwed to, a vertical shaft 10 a, 10 b sothat said member is driven in oscillation by said shaft.

In order to optimise the operational shaking height of the harvestingunit 3, the shaker system may comprise members 20 that extend verticallyover substantially all the height of the shaking tunnel 6. Inparticular, each shaker device may comprise up to approximately twentyshaker members 20, the shaker members 20 of the left shaker device beingoffset vertically relative to the shaker members 20 of the right shakerdevice.

Moreover, the members 20 of the shaker system are curved and heldbetween the front vertical shafts 10 a, 10 b and the rear verticalshafts 21 a, 21 b, respectively, to form between them a convergent frontopening 6 a and a divergent rear opening 6 b of the shaking tunnel 6.

In the figures, each shaker member 20 has an elongate geometry, notablytaking the form of a rod that has a small section compared to itslength. In particular, for harvesting grapes, the members 20 have adiameter of the order of 30 mm, and more particularly of 30 mm, and alength of the order of 1.8 m.

In operation, the interior faces of the members 20, that is to say thefaces directed toward the interior of the shaking tunnel 6, are incontact with the plants successively introduced into said tunnel inorder to transmit to said plants a shaking force operable to cause thefruits to drop off.

However, this repetitive contact, notably during a plurality ofsuccessive cycles of the harvesting unit 3, can lead to wear of theinterior face of the members 20. Moreover, the interior faces of themembers 20 can come into localised contact with the wood or concretestakes that support the plants, which can further aggravate the wearthereof.

Accordingly, in use, the section of the members 20 gets thinner, whichincreases their transverse flexibility and therefore progressivelyreduces their shaking efficacy. Moreover, this transverse thinning ofthe members 20 increases the risk of parasitic movements occurring, inparticular in the vertical direction, which also compromises theefficacy of said members.

To alleviate these disadvantages, each shaker member 20 comprises atleast one structural insert 22, 24 that has the oscillatorycharacteristics required for said member, said insert being covered by adistinct wear jacket 23 that is made of a material that may be differentfrom that from which said insert is made.

The wear of the jacket 23 therefore has a minimal influence, or evensubstantially no influence, on the oscillatory characteristics of theshaker member 20 and therefore on the efficacy of said member, whichmakes it possible to increase its service life, which is advantageous.

To strengthen the cohesion of the insert 22, 24 and the jacket 23, saidinsert comprises a reinforcement included in a matrix that is covered bythe jacket 23, said matrix being based on a plastic material which maybe different from that of the jacket 23, but that is of the samechemical nature such that it is adapted to adhere to the reinforcementand to the material of the jacket 23. Plastics or polymers are held tobe of the same chemical nature if they belong to the same class, i.e.,having at least one same repeating chemical group, characteristic forthat class, on their main chain.

A judicious choice of the material of the matrix therefore improves thecohesion of the assembly and therefore the overall stiffness of themember 20. This effectively limits the risks of parasitic movementsoccurring, notably in the case of high oscillation frequencies and/orconditions of high temperature and/or relative humidity.

In particular, in order to facilitate the cohesion of the insert 22, 24to said jacket 23 the material of the matrix is of the same chemicalnature as the material of the jacket 23. The two materials areadvantageously based on a thermoplastic material, in particularpolyamide. For example, the material of the jacket 23 may be chosen fromthe polyamide 11 family and the material of the matrix may be chosenfrom the polyamide 6 family, in particular polyamide 6.6.

The insert 22, 24 comprises at least one bundle of reinforcing fibresthat is covered by the matrix material. In particular, the fibres may bebased on glass and/or carbon.

Referring to FIGS. 3 to 5, each member 20 features a plurality ofstructural inserts 22, each of which has a left lobe 25 and a right lobe26 and which are distributed in the jacket 23 so as to form a discretevertical stack of left lobes 25—respectively right lobes 26. Inparticular, these inserts 22, 24 have the same matrix and each of themincludes reinforcements.

In FIG. 5, the member 20 comprises upper and lower inserts 22, therespective left lobes 25 and right lobes 26 of which are verticallyaligned two by two as well as an intermediate insert 24 of identicalstructure to said upper and lower inserts except that the lobes 25, 26thereof are aligned vertically two by two.

This way of distributing the inserts 22 in the jacket 23 makes itpossible to improve the cohesion of the assembly and therefore toimprove the overall stiffness of the member 20. When using the shakersystem, the forces induced by the oscillations of the member 20 aretherefore better distributed over said member, which makes it possibleto limit effectively the risks of parasitic movements occurring, notablyin the case of high oscillation frequencies and/or conditions of hightemperature and/or relative humidity.

The inserts 22, 24 are advantageously adapted to form a stack with avertical dimension greater than its horizontal transverse dimension,which makes it possible to increase the vertical stiffness of the member20 and therefore to limit the risks of vertical parasitic movementsduring oscillations of said member.

Moreover, the jacket 23 is configured to have a cross-section with ahorizontal dimension greater than its vertical dimension, which makes itpossible not only to confer on the member 20 a substantially circularcross-section, and thus to compensate for the increase in the verticaldimension of the stack of inserts 22, 24, but also to strengthen theprotection of the insert 22, 24 on the lateral faces of the member 20,and more particularly at the level of the interior face intended to comeinto contact with the plants to be shaken.

In the embodiments represented, the jacket 23 has an exterior geometrycomprising a left lateral bead 23 a and a right lateral bead 23 b inwhich are embedded the left lobe 25 and the right lobe 26, respectively.

In particular, the beads 23 a, 23 b are symmetrical with respect to twomedian longitudinal planes of the jacket 23, in particular a horizontalplane PH and a vertical plane PV, and are connected by a central part 23c through which the vertical plane PV passes, said central part having avertical outside dimension less than the vertical outside dimension ofsaid beads.

In the figures, the lobes 25, 26 of the same insert 22 are symmetricallypositioned with respect to the plane PV. Moreover, the left lobe 25 andthe right lobe 26 are symmetrically positioned relative to the plane PH.This kind of symmetrical distribution of the inserts 22 in the jacket 23makes it possible to confer identical stiffnesses on the left and rightparts of the member 20 and therefore to ensure a balanced distributionof the forces exerted on the member 20 when said member oscillates.

The left-hand lobe 25 and the right-hand lobe 26 of the inserts 22 areadvantageously aligned in the vertical direction, which makes itpossible to confer on the member 20 an increased stiffness in saidvertical direction, both on its left part and on its right part.Moreover, each of the inserts 22, 24 extends inside the jacket 23 in thelongitudinal direction of the member 20, in particular over a lengthsubstantially equal to the total length of said member, in order toconfer on said member good horizontal stiffness over all its length.

In the embodiments represented, the lobes 25 feature a cross-section ofsubstantially square shape, in particular square with rounded corners,which makes it possible to increase the areas of contact with thematerial constituting the wear jacket 23 and therefore to strengthen thecohesion of the assembly. In particular, the corners may have a radiusof curvature of the order of 0.8 mm.

The inserts 22 are generally separated vertically two by two by a gap ofsmall vertical dimension, in particular of the order of 2 mm, butsufficient to allow the material constituting the wear jacket 23 to fillsaid gap during the fabrication of the member 20.

In FIG. 3, the left-hand lobe 25 and the right-hand lobe 22 of the sameinsert 22 are separate and separated by a gap the horizontal dimensionof which is small but sufficient to allow the material constituting thewear jacket 23 to fill said gap during the fabrication of the member 20.

In FIGS. 4 and 5, the lobes 25, 26 of the same insert 22, 24 areconnected in the transverse horizontal direction (inserts 22) or in thevertical direction (intermediate insert 24) by a bridge 27 defining therelative positioning of said lobes in the jacket 23.

In particular, the lobes 25, 26 may feature an outside dimension that isgreater than the outside dimension of the bridges 27. The lobes 25, 26advantageously have a vertical dimension Dv of the order of 4 mm and thebridge 27 advantageously has a vertical dimension Dv of the order of 2mm. Further, the lobes 25, 26 have a horizontal transverse dimension Dhsubstantially equal to their vertical dimension Dv, and therefore of theorder of 4 mm, the total horizontal dimension DT of the insert 22, 24being of the order of 11 mm.

Referring to FIG. 6, each insert 22, 24 has an upper face and a lowerface on each of which a central groove 28 is formed to delimit thebridge 27 between said grooves. In particular, the grooves 28 have acentral radius of curvature of the order of 1.5 mm and form in thetransverse plane an angle A of the order of 97°.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A shaker device comprising: at least onemotorized member configured to transmit by contact a shaking force toobjects to be shaken, the at least one motorized member comprising aplurality of structural inserts that are covered by a distinct wearjacket, each of the plurality of structural inserts including areinforcement included in a matrix that is covered by the jacket, thematrix being based on a plastic material which is of a same chemicalnature as a material of the jacket, the plastic material of the matrixadhering to the reinforcement and to the material of the jacket, whereineach of the structural inserts has two lobes, respectively a left lobeand a right lobe, the plurality of structural inserts are arranged inthe jacket so as to form a discrete vertical stack of left lobes, and adiscrete vertical stack of right lobes.
 2. The shaker device accordingto claim 1, wherein the material of the matrix is different from thematerial of the jacket.
 3. The shaker device according to claim 1,wherein the materials of the matrix and the jacket are based on athermoplastic material.
 4. The shaker device according to claim 3,wherein the material of the jacket is chosen from the polyamide 11family, the material of the matrix being chosen from the polyamide 6family.
 5. The shaker device according to claim 1, wherein thereinforcement of each of the plurality of structural inserts comprisesat least one bundle of reinforcing fibers that is covered by the matrix.6. The shaker device according to claim 5, wherein the fibers are basedon glass or carbon.
 7. The shaker device according to claim 1, whereinthe plurality of structural inserts are distributed in the jacket. 8.The shaker device according to claim 7, wherein the structural insertshave a same matrix and each of them includes reinforcements.
 9. Theshaker device according to claim 1, wherein the at least one motorizedmember has an elongate geometry along which the plurality of structuralinserts extend in the jacket.
 10. The shaker device according to claim1, comprising a plurality of motorized members which are spacedvertically from one another.
 11. The shaker device according to claim 1,wherein at least one end of the at least one motorized member is mountedon a motorized shaft that is adapted to induce oscillation of the atleast one motorized member.
 12. The shaker device according to claim 11,wherein the at least one motorized member is curved and held between twovertical shafts.
 13. A fruit harvesting unit for a harvesting machine,the unit comprising: a straddling chassis delimiting a harvesting tunnelinto which plants to be shaken are intended to be introducedsuccessively to move in the tunnel between a front opening and a rearopening of the tunnel; and a shaker system comprising two shaker devicesdisposed on respective sides of the harvesting tunnel to delimit thetunnel transversely, each of the two shaker devices comprising: at leastone motorized member configured to transmit by contact a shaking forceto objects to be shaken, the at least one motorized member comprising aplurality of structural inserts that are covered by a distinct wearjacket, each of the plurality of structural inserts including areinforcement included in a matrix that is covered by the jacket, thematrix being based on a plastic material which is of a same chemicalnature as a material of the jacket, the plastic material of the matrixadhering to the reinforcement and to the material of the jacket, whereineach of the structural inserts has two lobes, respectively a left lobeand a right lobe, the plurality of structural inserts are arranged inthe jacket so as to form a discrete vertical stack of left lobes, and adiscrete vertical stack of right lobes.